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EU leaders pick Italian as bloc’s new top diplomat

European Union leaders are set to decide who will be the 28-nation bloc’s foreign policy chief for the next five years, with Italy’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini widely seen as the front-runner for the prestigious job.

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EU leaders pick Italian as bloc’s new top diplomat

Associated Press
6:20 a.m. EDT August 30, 2014

In this Friday, Aug. 15, 2014 file photo, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, right, speaks with Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, second left, and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, second right during a meeting in Brussels. Within the EU’s ranks, Baroness Catherine Ashton now is the most recognizable woman among the EU officials, the foreign policy chief who flies across the world, hobnobs with the great and powerful to deal with anything from the Iran nuclear issue to the fighting in Ukraine and the Middle East.
(Photo:
AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File
)

The decision comes as the crisis at the EU’s eastern border pitting Ukraine against Russia poses one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for the bloc in decades.

Mogherini, a 41-year-old center-left politician, has been Italy’s foreign minister only since February, drawing criticism that she lacks experience.

The EU leaders also elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to succeed European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in December as EU summit chairman and behind-the-scenes broker of compromises among national leaders.